Teaching
Pronunciation in the
ESL Classroom
Questions to Consider
• How do we define correct pronunciation?
• What “pronunciation” goals should we set for our Ss?
• How do we remain sensitive to the needs of our Ss when
teaching pronunciation?
 Need to be understood, varying desires to achieve better
pronunciation, embarrassment about poor pronunciation
Pronunciation in the Language Classroom
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The number of Non-Native English Speakers is increasing.
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English Pronunciation can differ depending upon where it is learned.

Comprehensibility is important. In other words, it is important that
our Ss can understand others, and other people can understand our
Ss.

Studying pronunciation can help Ss improve their ability to hear
intonation and sound patterns which will in turn help them improve
their listening skills and ability to decipher underlying meaning.

The ability to pronounce words properly is difficult for language
learners because they actually have to train their muscles to produce
sounds and sound patterns that may not exist in their native
language.
Pronunciation for Comprehensibility
English is spoken around the world. Australians pronounce
words differently than Americans. Americans pronounce words
differently than British speakers of English. Our goal is to
understand and to be understood. We want to speak English in
order to communicate with one another effectively.
When we work on pronunciation, our goal does not have to be
to have perfect American pronunciation. Our goals are to
understand others and to be understood!
Benefits of Pronunciation
 People understand us better
 We understand others and improve our listening skills
 We improve our writing and note-taking skills
How to Approach Teaching Pronunciation
When to Teach Pronunciation
• Designated Class Time
• As it Comes up
What Pronunciation Issues Should Be Addressed?
1. What pronunciation errors do you continually hear in your
classrooms?
2. Determine how seriously these pronunciation errors
interfere with intelligibility.
3. Decide your pronunciation priorities. “How important is
covering the pronunciation feature for Ss’
communication needs?” Analyzing pronunciation issues that
negatively affect Ss’ intelligibility can help you prioritize
areas for improvement
4. Research the matter
Teacher’s Goal
You can use explicit instruction when teaching pronunciation
with the purpose of helping Ss recognize aspects of
pronunciation patterns involved in speech.
Raising awareness of various sounds and sound patterns can
help Ss with comprehensibility.
In addition, encouraging Ss to practice sound patterns when
they are away from the classroom is important.
Teaching aims to enable Ss to develop strategies for coping on
their own and for continuing to learn.
Pronunciation Issues in the Language
Classroom
Pronunciation Issues
• Native Language Transfer
• No Sound Equivalent in the Student’s L1
• Learner Motivation
• Age and Aptitude
• Accent Identity: Sociocultural Factors
• Differing L1s in the Classroom Setting
• Fossilized Errors
• Speech Impediments
• Past English Language Learning Environment
How to Address Issues
• Accent exposure
• Rough tune your speech
• Teach that making mistakes is a part of the learning process
• Encourage Ss to practice what they have learned
outside of the classroom environment
• Exploit knowledge of Ss’ L1s to address areas of difficulty in
their L2 (if possible)
• Read Ss’ body posturing and facial expressions to determine
whether to further address areas of difficulty or to move past
them
• Teach students how to analyze their own speech
Teaching Pronunciation
 Present: Raise students’ awareness
 Practice: Engage in controlled practice
 Production: Produce language in a more
communicative, less controlled manner
NOTE: This could extend over the course of several lessons.
You may have to revisit the topic much more than once. Once
you see that learners have gained control, you can then have
Ss use the newly acquired feature in more creative,
communicative exchanges.
Teaching Pronunciation
Segmental Level
Segmentals: inventory of vowel and
consonant sounds
Segmental Level: Inventory of Sounds
• Phoneme: Individual Sounds /M/, /N/
• Vowel: Sound produced when the flow of air from the lungs is not
blocked and the vocal chords are vibrating. Changing the position
of the tongue can produce different vowel sounds.
• Consonants: Sounds made by blocking the air flow coming from
the lungs.
• Consonant Clusters: Consonant Combination
/TCH/, /CH/, /SH/, /BR/
• Diphthong: Combination of two vowel sounds put together
/OU/, /AI/
Teaching Pronunciation
Initial Approach: Ss have to develop muscle memory. Some sound
patterns made in English do not exist in other languages; therefore,
Ss have to learn the mechanics. As a result, achieving proper
pronunciation can be very challenging.
Teach Mechanics of Articulation: The goal is to teach Ss what
their lips (shape), tongue, jaw (relaxed/not relaxed), teeth, and air
flow are doing in order to produce sound so that Ss can try to
recreate the sound.
Purpose: Drawing attention to the way that particular sounds are
made can help Ss recognize how to reproduce sound. Bring
awareness through teaching with the intention of giving Ss the tools
to practice on their own.
Teaching Techniques
Teaching Techniques
• Mechanical Reproduction
• Tongue Twisters
• Songs
• Poems
• Listening Discrimination
• Dictation Exercises
• Speaking and Listening Groups
• Voiced vs. Voiceless
Manner of Articulation Sounds in English
http://www.slideshare.net/jdspider/manner-of-articulation
Teaching Techniques
Teaching Aids: Use the internet, the board, a sagittal diagram,
mirrors, speakers, recordings, etc.
Minimal Pairs: A pair of words that differ by only one sound
Identification Drill
Contrast Vowels:
pan vs. pen
land vs. lend
Contrast Consonants: thank vs. sank thick vs. sick
Isolation
bit beat beat beat
tan tan ten tan
pool pool pool pull
Sentences
John bit the dog.
John beat the dog.
Show me your bag.
Show me your back.
Sample Tongue Twister
Teaching Ideas
Voiced vs. Voiceless
Voiced: There is vibration in your throat. You can hear the sound.
(All Vowel Sounds and B, G, L, M, N, R, V, Y, Z and voiced TH)
Voiceless: There is no vibration in your throat. You cannot hear the sound.
You hear the manipulation of air.
(F, K, P, S, SH, TCH, X, or voiceless TH)
Let’s Compare:
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F/V
P/B
K/G
T/D
Teaching Voiced vs. Voiceless helps when teaching the following:
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
Words that end with /-S/ or /-ES/
Words that end with /-D/ or /-ED/
/F/ & /V/
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Description and Analysis
Discrimination Practice
Controlled Practice
Guided Practice
Communicative Practice
/F/ & /V/
/F/
Voiceless
Fail
Face
Ferry
Fan
/V/
Voiced
Veil
Vase
Very
Van
Practice Reading with your Partner
•
•
•
•
I carry flowers in my van.
Mr. Ford votes on bills.
Friday is a very special day.
Feel free to drive to Virginia in Bob’s van.
/F/ & /V/
Discrimination
1. 3 Fan fan van
2. 2 Veil fail veil
3. 3 Face face vase
4. 2 Very ferry very
/F/ & /V/
Teacher Dictation
1. I have four volleyballs.
2. The funny man drove his van very fast.
3. I bet Fran went to the vet.
/F/ & /V/
Partner Dictation
I have a fancy vase full of
violet flowers for my very
special lover.
/F/ & /V/
Partner Dictation
I was very sad when Fran
flew to France for a volleyball
tournament on Valentines
Day.
Short /I/ & Long /E/
0 fit
5 feet
1 ship
6 sheep
2 chip
7 cheap
3 rid
8 read
4 pitch
9 peach
224-5539: chip chip pitch feet feet rid peach
eslflow.com
Pronunciation Rules: Regular Past Tense Verbs
 When a regular verb ends with a voiced sound, the ed
ending is pronounced /d/.
 When a regular verb ends in an unvoiced sound, the ed
ending is pronounced /t/.
 The ed ending is pronounced /id/ when the verb ends in
the sounds /t/ and /d/.
Voiceless= /t/ Voiced= /d/
/t/ or /d/= /id/
fix
laugh
kiss
work
love
enjoy
open
care
wait
decide
report
remind
dance
snore
correct
Pronunciation Improvement Tips
• Learners acquire languages most effectively when they are
active participants
• Encourage independent, pair and small group work
• Explain to Ss that errors are a natural part of the learning
process
• Provide Ss with feedback, but don’t interrupt the flow of speech
• Encourage Ss to watch the mouths of speakers and to listen to
native speakers’ pronunciation patterns and imitate what they
hear
Teaching Pronunciation
Suprasegmental Level
Suprasegmentals: covers more than one sound
segment. The suprasegmental level of
pronunciation focuses upon features of stress,
rhythm, intonation, and connected speech. There
is emphasis on discourse context and the speaker’s
intent.
Pronunciation: Suprasegmental Level
• Stress: Degree of force or loudness you give to a syllable in a word or to words
in a phrase or sentence. Stress provides the rhythm of the language and
intonation provides the melody.
• Rhythm: The way a language sounds as a result of the pattern of stress and
unstressed syllables in speech.
• Intonation: The way the voice goes up and down over a line of speech: the
music of speech.
• Pitch: The level (high or low) at which we speak. We can change the pitch of
our voice to give a certain message. Pitch is crucial for getting our meaning
across.
“Yes” can mean “I agree, maybe, you can’t be serious, you are so
right” just by the pitch used.
• Connected Speech: The way we blend words together (gonna, wanna, hafta)
Teaching Pronunciation
Initial Approach: Every language has a system of sounds, stress, and
intonation patterns that give it a rhythm and melody. When speech is
unintelligible, conversation becomes difficult. Improper intonation can
cause speakers to be perceived as abrupt or even rude. Learning to
recognize stress and intonation patterns can help learners understand
and be understood.
Teach Mechanics: We want to teach Ss what intonation, stress, rhythm,
etc. are, and allow Ss to recognize and practice patterns in speech.
Purpose: By studying how to use pitch, intonation, stress, rhythm, Ss
can develop an “ear” for language and how to use pronunciation
patterns when speaking. Bringing awareness will help students to begin
to recognize these patterns. This can in turn help them to understand
underlying meaning.
Teaching Techniques
Teaching Techniques
• Script Practice
• Pair Work
• Listening Discrimination
• Recorded Dialogue
• Speaking and Listening Groups
• Story Telling
• Nursery Rhymes
• Poems
• Ballads
Teaching Techniques
Teaching Aids: Tapping, clapping, drawing symbols to show stress or
arrows to show intonation; Using kazoos, rubber bands, hand gesturing,
and recording voice; practicing scripts pair scripts, etc.
The rhythm of English moves from stress to stress no matter how many
unstressed syllables fall in between.
Tap out a beat; keep the beat the same for all four examples. Reduce the
function words or say them quickly.
MEN FIGHT WARS
the MEN FIGHT WARS
the MEN will FIGHT WARS
The MEN will FIGHT the WARS.
Keep the rhythm
Teaching Techniques
Demonstration
There are multiple ways to say the same thing. Meaning can depend upon
context:
Did he go to Paris last week?
No, she went to Paris last week.
Is Sue going to Paris?
No, she went to Paris last week.
Did Sue go to Rome last week?
No, she went to Paris last week.
Did she go last year?
No, she went to Paris last week.
Jazz Chants Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYwoLZso7s
Let’s Practice
“It’s warm in here.”
• Request for someone to open the window
• You have been outside in the cold and you
just came in the house
• You are unsure if it is warm in a particular
room, so you phrase it as a question
• Express agreement
Intonation: Partner Dialogue
A: Hi, how are you?
B: Fine, thank you. And you?
A: Just great. So, what have you been doing
lately?
B: Oh, not much. But I've been keeping busy.
A: Well...it's been good to see you.
B: You too...bye!
A: Goodbye.
eslflow.com
Intonation: Dialogue Scenarios
1) Two people who have just met but don't really know each other, and
feel obligated to engage in small talk in the elevator
2) A sick person in a hospital and a friend who visits
3) Two people who have trouble hearing clearly 4) A single man and
woman who are shy but attracted to one another
5) A single man attracted to a woman who is not attracted to him 6) An
intimidating teacher and a student who is nervous to see the teacher
7) Two people who were angry at each other and just saw each other for
the first time in years, but who are trying to act nice
8) A landlord and his overdue tenant
Pronunciation Resources
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Manner of Articulation of Sounds in English:
http://www.slideshare.net/jdspider/manner-of-articulation
Anatomy of Articulators:
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/anatomy.htm
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/index.html#
Speech Accent Archive: http://accent.gmu.edu/resources.php
English Pronunciation & Listening:
http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/
Pronunciation at eslflow.com:
http://www.eslflow.com/pronunciationlessonplans.html
American Clear Speech Sounds:
http://www.paulnoll.com/Books/Clear-Speech/index.html
ESL Pronunciation at rong-chang.comhttp://www.rongchang.com/pronunciation.htm
http://www.rong-chang.com/mjc/pronunciation/
Closing Questions

Can pronunciation times be planned?

Can pronunciation be gone over as it comes up?

What are some methods you can use to teach pronunciation?
References
Youtube.com/BridgeTEFL. (Producer). (2009). Teaching Pronunciation with Jazz
Chants - TEFLVideos.com [Internet Video]. Available from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYwoLZso7s
Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (2010) Teaching
pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other
languages. Cambridge University Press.